Chapter 17 Flashcards
Who were Allison and Elizabeth Davis, and what was their mission in Natchez, Mississippi?
Black anthropologists who, along with a white Harvard team, conducted a covert study of caste and class in the Jim Crow South in the 1930s.
What made the Davis and Gardner team’s research revolutionary?
It was one of the first interracial academic collaborations to document caste dynamics in the Deep South from both sides of the caste divide.
Why did the team conceal the true purpose of their research?
Revealing they were studying caste and race relations could have endangered their lives in segregated Mississippi.
What cover story was used for the Davises’ presence in Natchez?
They claimed to be studying the Black church, a subject more palatable to local white residents.
What challenges did the Davises face as Black researchers in the South?
Constant surveillance, social restrictions, difficulty securing housing, and dangers related to breaking caste protocols.
What was the title of the study published by Davis and the Gardners, and what did it document?
Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class (1941); it analyzed caste, class, and social control in a Mississippi town.
How did caste roles shape the research process for the Davis-Gardner team?
They had to maintain social roles in public, with Davis feigning subordination to Gardner and avoiding casual contact across caste lines.
What obstacles delayed publication of Deep South?
Financial hardship, intense field conditions, competition from white scholars who published first, and criticism from within the Black scholarly community.
What criticism did Oliver Cromwell Cox make of the caste framework?
He argued that since Black Americans resisted inequality, their social condition was not truly caste-based like India’s.
How did Davis respond to Cox’s critique?
Davis dismissed it as uninformed, noting that Cox lacked empirical fieldwork and misunderstood the American caste system.
How did the caste system affect Davis’s academic career?
Despite becoming the first Black tenured professor at a major white university (University of Chicago), he faced discrimination and was excluded from faculty dining and student contact.
What legacy did Davis’s work leave?
He inspired future activists and thinkers like Martin Luther King Jr., St. Clair Drake, and Stokely Carmichael, and his work remains a foundation for understanding systemic inequality.
